“Police officials said Monday that they expect demonstrations at this week’s World Economic Forum will be mostly peaceful, but they plan to strictly enforce a century-old law barring groups of demonstrators from wearing masks,” The Washington Post reports. “Chief of Patrol Joseph Esposito said the law applies to groups of three or more. ‘Three or more with masks and they’re marching, they’re under arrest,’ he said.” Thousands of demonstrators are

Jacob Sullum has a really interesting Reason piece examining sexual predator laws, court-imposed “treatment” based on questionable “science,” and cirumvening double jeopardy. In “Sick and Wrong,” Sullum details the instructive story of Michael Crane, a convicted Kansas sex offender whose secondary conviction was recently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court: On January 6, 1993, a half-hour after exposing his genitals at a tanning salon in Johnson County, Kansas, Michael Crane

“The U.S. attack submarine Greeneville, which collided with and sank a Japanese fishing boat last year, has collided with an American warship in the northern Arabian Sea but neither ship was in danger of sinking, the Pentagon has said. “Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said there were no injuries in the surface collision on Monday about 40 miles (64 km) off Oman, but a fuel tank on the amphibious Navy warship

“The International Bible Society said Monday that America’s best-selling modern Bible is about to get an update using gender-neutral wording, despite past criticism of that idea from conservatives,” Newsday reports. “The revision will be called ‘Today’s New International Version,’ or TNIV. The original ‘New International Version,’ which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide since 1978, will remain on the market. The New Testament of the latest version goes

Matt Drudge reports: “Fed up with having his picture taken during events in the Justice Department’s Great Hall in front of semi-nude statues, Attorney General John Ashcroft has reportedly ordered massive draperies to conceal the offending figures — which have been displayed since the 1930s!” The draperies themselves, according to ABCNEWS.com’s Beverly Lumpkin, cost just over $8000.00, and are designed to cover the Spirit of Justice’s enormous aluminum breast —

If you live in the San Joaquin Valley, “You might not be able to light the yule log in your fireplace next Christmas,” The Modesto Bee reports. Reached for comment at his home in the North Pole, Santa Claus said, “Don’t look at me. I had nothing to do with this silliness. In fact, I’ve always found the visibility over Bakersfield quite satisfactory.”

“The great political affliction of the 20th century,” notes Thomas Sowell in a recent colum, “was putting abstractions ahead of flesh-and-blood human beings, especially in ideological totalitarian states under Nazism and Communism.” Yet even today, Sowell opines, there are large and growing numbers of people — especially among the intelligentsia — whose starting point is some abstraction that they wish to apply to reality. For example, even in the face

“Detainees at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been caught hiding stones in their cages for possible use as weapons against military guards, senior US army officers have revealed. “The details of the potential dangers presented by the captives further undermined the position of Gen Colin Powell, the secretary of state, who has argued that they should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention,” The Telegraph

“The General Accounting Office plans to file a lawsuit this week if the White House doesn’t provide information about Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy industry executives,” Newsday is reporting. “The suit, which would seek to force Cheney to provide details about his energy task force, would be the first legal action of its kind between the legislative and executive branches of government. The ultimatum comes as lawmakers seek

I love that actor/comedian Larry Miller is writing hawkish columns for The Weekly Standard. I haven’t a clue why this pleases me so much, and yet I feel so at peace. Here’s a bit from his latest column, “Won’t You Come Home, John Walker?”: Of course, many Americans on the call-in shows are rationalizing what he did. One mental giant reflected, ‘Let’s not judge him too quickly. I did some